USA Track & Field Championships
Rider's Ritter Runs in Steeplechase
EUGENE, OREGON—Senior All-American Emily Ritter (Millsboro, Delaware/Sussex Tech) of the Rider University track and field team participated in the United States of America Track and Field Outdoor Championships on Thursday evening in the 3,000m steeplechase at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Ritter completed her historic season with a time of 10:23.87, placing 22nd with the top 14 advancing to the finals.
Emma Coburn (New Balance) won the preliminaries with a time of 9:36.90.
The top times from the finals in this meet earn a spot on the 2015 IAAF World Championship team, which competes in Beijing, China August 22-30.
Ritter was invited to compete at the USATF Championships after earning All-America status and placing ninth at the NCAA Championships with a time of 9:54.72, in a meet which also took place in Eugene.
Ritter was the first woman from the Bronc track and field program and just the third athlete ever from the Rider track and field program, to compete in the NCAA Championships.
Rider had never had an All-American in the track and field program until Ritter and she is only the fourth female in Rider history to earn that accolade. Deanna Dovak (softball) and Virginia Egusquiza (field hockey) and Sandra Penas (field hockey) previously earned All-America status for the Broncs.
Ritter was the second All-American for Rider Athletics this year with freshman wrestler B.J. Clagon placing fifth at 149 at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.
Both Ritter and Clagon were named the Rider Athletes of the Year earlier in the week.
Ritter qualified for Nationals in the 3,000m steeplechase, an event that she never competed in before last year.
The first time she competed in the steeplechase she won the 2014 Rider Invitational. The second time she ran it she broke the Rider record and placed second at 2014 MAAC Championships. She went on to break her own steeplechase record at the 2014 ECAC Championships to qualify for the NCAA East Regional in Florida last spring.
This year Ritter ran a personal record 9:54.34 at the NCAA Regional May 29 in Jacksonville, Florida, when she placed second in her heat and seventh (of 47) overall to qualify for Eugene.
Earlier this spring she compiled a 9:55.15 clocking at the ECAC Championships to place second and earn All-East honors.
Ritter was named the Most Outstanding Performer at the MAAC Outdoor Championships this spring after winning the steeplechase and placing second in both the 1500m and the 5,000m.
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